1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus which effects nonintrusive scanning of cargo containers for detection of nuclear based weapons or fissionable material during container transfer between a ship and land transportation.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a buffer crane having nuclear weapon detection scanning apparatus arranged for non-intrusive interrogation or inspection of cargo containers while each container is being transferred between a ship and quay side land transportation without slowing the quay crane container transfer cycle.
Still more particularly, the present invention is a mobile cargo container buffer and scanning crane which transfers cargo containers between land transportation and a quay crane buffer position during loading or off loading and which moves the cargo container being transferred past a predetermined inspection position for radiation emission or neutron analysis examination by a craneboard apparatus before depositing the cargo container at the intended transfer buffer deposition position.
Specifically, the present invention is a buffer crane in the form of a mobile structure having a shuttle and bridge crane mounted thereon for transferring cargo containers between a quay crane pickup or deposition position and quay side land transportation. It has a predetermined inspection position on the platform where a container can be non-intrusively inspected by longitudinally transferring the container on the shuttle past a radiation emission detection or neutron analysis apparatus located at the inspection position while functioning as a buffer operation. The containers are either deposited on land transportation such as a truck trailer chassis or are picked up by the bridge crane for transfer to the quay crane for further transfer to a ship.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In view of recent terrorist activities throughout the world, considerable effort is being given by analysts to improving security measures with respect to the maritime industry and United States port operations. At the present time, based on the Automated Tracking System, an intelligence based search system used by U.S. Customs, it has been estimated that the probability that contraband will be discovered in containers that are entering the U.S. is less than 50 percent. Thus, the maritime industry provides a delivery system for weapons of mass destruction and every other container could possibly conceal an atomic weapon which, if exploded in a U.S. port, in addition to causing massive destruction, would essentially end international trade.
The methods to be employed to improve U.S. port security may prove severely detrimental to port productivity. The ideal performance standard is 100 percent inspection of inbound containers to U.S. ports. Apart from physically unloading and inspecting the contents of every container, the obvious alternative is to non-intrusively inspect each container such as by x-ray and when more sophisticated means of nonintrusive inspection are developed, such as gamma ray scanning and neutron analysis, implementing the use of those developments in addition to x-ray based systems.
The use of x-ray machinery in one manner or another for the purpose of inspecting containers is discussed in the prior art literature. However, despite the numerous designs, structures, and forms of apparatus disclosed by the prior art, which have been developed for the accomplishment of the specific objectives, purposes, and requirements of container contents inspection, the devices, machines, and methods which have been heretofore suggested to accomplish these goals consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious, configurations, combinations, and arrangements of apparatus. However, these designs have essentially added processing steps to port operations, and the sizes of the machinery and complexity of the processing steps essentially interrupt the established system of port operations. This factor causes problems when attempting to integrate the technology into dockside cargo container handling.
The problem with instituting high-energy x-ray scanners for cargo container examination, apart from safety concerns, is that the equipment will reduce port productivity by disrupting highly developed port operations and consuming valuable terminal space. The primary disadvantage is the interruption of the cargo container transfer process between ship and shore. Most importantly, it interferes with the quay crane off-loading cycle time which is crucial to a ship's berthing time at the dock which must be kept at a minimum.
The inspection procedure of the related apparatus requires holding a container immobile so that it can be x-rayed. While the cycle times for the x-ray process may ultimately be reduced over time by improved technology, all of the presently considered means for effecting the x-ray process require either stopping the container movement for processing (usually during unloading in U.S. ports and, if required, in loading at foreign ports) or multiple additional handling steps of the container during the transfer process by taking it out of the normal handling cycle, and to an extra handling step, at an x-ray position for processing, and then returning the container into the transfer cycle.
The present invention permits integration of the x-ray process or any other inspection process into the buffer station method of crane operation disclosed in the prior patented related apparatus and methods of buffer crane operation whereby the inspection process can occur concurrently during the cargo container transfer between ship and shore without interruption of the quay crane transfer cycle.
The mobile cargo container scanning crane contemplated according to the present invention departs substantially from the conventional concepts and designs contemplated by the technical literature, and in doing so, provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of nonintrusive cargo container inspection during transfer between ship and shore as described above, but it accomplishes the result in a different and improved manner for producing a transfer cycle with a buffer inclusive procedure for container inspection which is easily integrated into the container transfer cycle for faster processing times and more efficient port operation.